Electroacupuncture for postoperative pain

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Abstract
Thirty-four patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery were entered into a randomised, controlled trial of electroacupuncture of the ear to alleviate postoperative pain. Nineteen patients received electroacupuncture and papaveretum on demand and 15 patients received papaveretum only. Patients estimated pain using a visual analogue scale every 8h for the 2 post-operative days. They also completed a questionnaire on pain recall towards the end of the post-operative week. The electroacupuncture patients reported more pain and received almost the same amount of analgesia as the control group. Two patients asked for the acupuncture needles to be removed. The questionnaire indicated that most patients only recalled ‘mild discomfort’ post-operatively.